 Hello radiant family, I am Caleb Culver. I am the worship and prayer pastor here at Radiant Church. I am insanely honored to be speaking with you this weekend. And we're gonna be continuing our series in James called Revolutionary Faith. I wanna ask you to open your Bibles to James three. As we do that, just gonna recap a little bit. Pastor John Zonervin preached an incredible message last weekend, faith without works is dead. He talked about faith without obedience is dead. Unless our faith has movement, it is worthless. He used that great analogy of the chair. You can say, hey, this chair is gonna hold me, but unless you're willing to sit in it and try your weight against that small little plastic chair, it's not real faith. And so James leads us from this place of faith into everyone's favorite topic, which is our word. And James three dives deep into our favorite sermon to hear, which is our words. And I had to laugh like, you know, the meeting that like the handing out the sermons are like, all right, week one, like pastor Lee, I want you to take like the testing and the temptation and really dissect what is the difference between that theologically. And Stefan, I want you to dive deep on desire and temptation, how the enemy goes into that. And pastor John, I want you to teach on discrimination in the church and then talk about faith without works and bring this difficult passage to life. And then let's worship pastor guy, why don't you take some words bad, other words good? I'm like, okay, some words bad, other words good. I got it guys, I'm gonna nail it. And you know, the great thing about being a worship pastor is we have like two really easy outs that other people don't have. The first out is, I'm a worship pastor. I can totally bomb today. And I'll be like, yeah, well, how's the worship? And like, I got job security pastor John, he's got teaching pastor on his title. If he bombs teaching, you know, his job's on the line for me, as long as the worship solid and thankfully worship this weekend has been absolutely incredible. The second out is my favorite. It's you know, if it just all starts going south and I just start bombing, I just go behind the piano and I'm like, I just wrote a song. I'd love to just sing that over us. And it's just a very easy out. And I just start singing and black rim glasses appear from nowhere, my jeans get tighter and I have a really easy out. So no, I'll joking aside, I really am incredibly honored to speak with you. I have such high regard for this platform and this microphone pastor Lee, 24 years of faithfulness, cultivating a deep life, deep revelation in the knowledge and the word of God. And so to step into it, there's a trembling and now stepping into it, James, three passages, there's like triple tremble because nobody steps up to talk about words and like, oh man, yeah, they picked me because I rule at this thing. Like pastor John, I'm giving a lot of shout outs tonight, but he was like, just in case anyone's tempted to think you're great at this, I'm gonna show a video of you playing tennis just to make sure they know you can't do this whole words thing really well. And that is a bit of the point of which James teaches us that we are all in the same boat. If anybody thinks that they are beyond, then we need to check our hearts. And so as we dive into the word, I'm gonna just ask for two things from you as we listen to the word of God. The first is I want you as I read this passage and as I speak to not feel condemnation about where you're at today or shame about words you have said in the past. That's number one. The second is when we're talking about these words to really try to disassociate positive and negative from life and death. When the scriptures talks about word, it puts that into the categories of life or death, not negative and positive. In fact, there's actually more negative phrases in scripture than positive and yet it is all life giving and life breathing. So tonight as we do dive into the word, those are my two requests because it can be so easy to shut ourselves down in condemnation. It can be so easy to think of these in terms of positive and negative. So you guys good with that? Awesome. We're gonna read James three, whether you're in portage or online or in person, we're gonna start right in verse one and just read it along with me. It'll be on the screens as well. My brethren, let not many of you become teachers knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment for we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he's a perfect man able to also bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses mouths that they may obey us and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships. They are so large and driven by fierce winds, but they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest, a little fire kindles and the tongue is a fire or a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature and is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird and reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no man can tame the tongue. It's an unruly evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and father and with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing my brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree my brethren bear olives or grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh. I just wanna start tonight. We're gonna dive into really three main points that I believe James makes. And the first one is consider the motivation, but before I even get to that point, I just wanna say I love James's communication style. I know that there's a lot of like, I don't really like James, he's really mean and I like John cause he's more cuddly and nice and lets all love one another and James just seems like he's in a bad mood. Listen, God could have given us the word of God written from just one person or he could have just dropped a book right in our lap. But he chose to use different unique voices with different unique personalities. And he's not afraid of using some different personalities that might shake things up or might be different than another. And we know there's power not just in the word of God but there's power in the word of God in our mouth and there's power in the word of God in our unique mouth or the unique way that we speak and talk. And that's even what we're diving into a bit tonight and I love that about James and I celebrate it. And so James comes in, he's just come swinging the hammer. Like, not many of you should want to become teachers or desire to be teachers. And for us, when we hear the word teacher, like we probably are thinking about, it might be a Sunday school teacher or it might be a school teacher, it might be a professor. There's really so many teachers that it can apply to so many things but James is writing to the 12 tribes of Israel that have been spread out through the diaspora and they have a very specific thing in mind when of course they didn't have the word teacher, it was the word rabbi. And a rabbi was somebody who studied, who knew the word of God inside of now and because of his unique teaching ability and skill, he had followers and after followers came notoriety, political power, money. They didn't have NBA stars, the Jews had rabbis. Those were like, you know, the rock stars, the ones who had accolades and power and notoriety because with that teaching skill came those things. And James starts right at the beginning, hitting the motivation, he says, not many of you should desire to become teachers. And if I had to sub the word teacher for a context that we use in this world today, it would be influencer. Not many of you should desire to become influencers because there's a stricter judgment. We live in a time where everybody wants to be a teacher. Everybody got a Twitter account, everybody got an Instagram and wants to be Instagram famous. Everybody wants to be heard when they wanna be heard, they wanna say what they wanna say, when they wanna say it, the way they wanna say it to whoever they wanna say it to. And we just have given the world these microphones and stages and it has become the thing that our young people want more than anything. It used to be like, man, I wanna be like an NBA player, I wanna be great at what I do or even I wanna be rich. But now it's just like, I wanna be famous. And my kids even say it and it was actually a couple of months ago, right here in Richland, we had a worship practice. And after practice was over, Aliyah, my seven-year-old daughter and Lily Asbury, Corey and Anna's six-year-old, they came up and they started singing to the mic a little bit. And they knew how to play like the worship pastor's heart. So like they got into the microphone and they're like, we love you God, we worship you, we love you God. And then Jojo Rittering, who's our lead audio engineer here in Richland, he starts putting like autotune on their voice. And so it's starting to sound like a hit track. And I kid you not, within 45 seconds we went from I love you God, they're literally up there singing like, I'm so cool, I'm so famous, I'm so rich, everybody wants to be me. It was like, what happened? They went from Carrie Jobe to Cardi B in like 30 seconds. We got the whole thing on video. It's insanely cute, but it's also just such an amazing picture of like, you know, like, hey, let me get that microphone. I want to glorify God. Just kidding. Beee. And James really later on in this passage in James three, 16, he really hits what the effect of that is on a culture. And in verse 16, he says, wherever envy and self seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. Have we ever lived in a more confusing time? Gender confusion, sexual confusion, religious confusion, identity confusion. We are at an all time high for confusion. Why? Because self seeking has been elevated in our hearts. And the motivation has become, we want to be heard and we want to be seen. I want to present to you how Jesus looked at his motivation for how he speaks. And in John 12, 49, Jesus says, for I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me gave a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that his command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told me, so I speak. If anybody ever in history had a reason to speak what he wants when he wants, it would have been Jesus, the Son of God. And yet 30 years into his life, and we have a couple sentences on record. And he says, even though I'm the Son of God, I don't say anything unless the Father is saying it. And where does that motivation come from? I want to just point you to John 4 really quick. I'm just going to read this scripture. Don't worry about turning there. I'm going to read a bunch of scriptures tonight. Really good stuff in here. Big fan of using a lot of scripture. A lot better than my words. So in John, excuse me, John 5, Jesus says two stunning phrases. One in verse 41 and then in 44. He says number one, I do not receive honor from men. And then in verse 44, how can you believe who receive honor from one another and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? Jesus had zero self-seeking in him. Jesus was completely liberated. He didn't care about the praise of man so he wasn't hurt by the rejection of man because he only cared about the glory of his Father. He only cared about if his words brought delight to the Father, did men get to hear it or did men get to see? And unfortunately, we have made the ultimate, if you can have your voice heard and seen, that's the greatest expression of what we're supposed to be. And the church has fallen into this trap unfortunately. And listen, as Americans, we have a First Amendment right to free speech and I love America, nobody goes harder on 4th of July than me. I saved an America mustache if you weren't here on the 4th of July weekend, leading worship in that beautiful mustache. But listen, as an American, I have a First Amendment right to free speech. As a member of the kingdom of heaven, I lost that right. I don't have the right to free speech. I don't get to say what I want, the way I want to whoever I want, whenever I feel like it, just because I want to. I laid that privilege down at the feet of the cross, the moment that my mouth confessed the name of Jesus, I lost the privilege to say what I want. And the motivation has to shift from wanting to be seen and using a microphone and Twitter and all of these things so that I can finally feel heard and it has to turn into, I just want to be pleasing to my father. And whether that means being silent for 30 years and then speaking up or whether that means standing up and saying something that nobody else wants to hear in that moment, it does not matter because if I'm convinced in my heart that the father delights in me, I will be free from the praise and rejection of man but I have to first start with the motivation. I can't desire to just be an influencer so people notice me. And that's something that's not seen and understood. People think, well, I could do it pastorally. It does. I could get up on a weekend and tell people, I got lots of things. Like I got a bunch of things I'm not happy about. I love to get that microphone. You don't see the thousands of, I mean, if you walk into pastorally's office, you're like, am I in a Barnes and Noble? Like what happened? There's literally books on the ceiling. How did they even get there? The thousands of books and the hours of prayer and literally crying and weeping over words and arguing things out and listening to people after preaching that are upset and the life that he goes through, he actually lays privilege down so that he has this microphone. And yet we are trying to get the privilege and the microphone. My brethren, these things should not be so and so we have to consider our motivation with our words. Do we want to be seen and heard or do we want to be obedient? That's the first one. The second one that I think James points to that I want to point out is consider the source. And this is an intense scripture in verse six. The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the entire body and it sets on fire the course of nature and is set on fire by hell. And Proverbs 18, 21 says death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit. James uses this really intense language of fire but he makes a really clear distinction at the end. It's not your fire, it's hell's fire. And then he talks about life and he says the tongue can produce life or death. And sometimes we take this scripture of life and death is in the power of tongue and we think we have the power of life and death. Our tongue has the power of life and death and no, no, no, we are the gateway but we are not in control of life and death. There is one who holds all life and it's Jesus who upholds everything by the word of his power. There is one who holds the keys to death and Hades and his name is Jesus and there's also one who is the father of lies who has created, the only thing he was able to create was lying and James in this passage he says you can set the world on fire with what you say but don't forget it's not your fire. It's either hell's fire or it's God's river, God's water. You have to consider the source and the analogy that kind of came to me in my weird little mind of mine was kind of like of this Disney Pixar like scenario I was like in my kitchen and it was like all the appliances were all like Disney characters and like the fridge was like, you know this big mama who just wanted to like hold and keep things safe and the stove was like the hot headed dad who's just like really, you know, temper and then the faucet. The faucet is this young, you know bright eyed, bushy tailed young character and the faucet's great, they love what they do but over time this faucet starts thinking you know what, I'm the most important thing here because without me there wouldn't be water and then he's like, you know what I've never seen water without me being here. I am water. I am the source of all water without me nothing would live, you know and they have to go on this whole journey for him to understand, no, no, no you are not water, you are a faucet you got a nozzle on you that if that nozzle's turned there's a source of water somewhere else that can come out of you or it can be stopped up by you that is what you are and listen, that is what we are you are not powerful enough in yourself to just unleash the power of life or death yourself. It is coming from another source but if you're unaware that your words are not just your own words that they either came from the author of lies or the author of life and they have an eternal weight and an eternal impact on them and he says this phrase in verse eight that has just been kind of resounding in my spirit James three eight kind of a weird one to resound in your spirit but verse eight says, but no man can tame the tongue. Want to read it again one more time no man can tame the tongue. Well, he means no like no non-christian man can tame the tongue. Let's see, is it saying that? No man can tame, no it just says no man can tame the tongue. Well, you mean like no man who's just, you know, they're not trying hard enough for they're not putting effort. It says no man can tame the tongue. Here's what I think no man can tame the tongue means. I think it means no man can tame the tongue. Pretty simple. And yet somehow we leave these James three sermons and we're like, why dad, now that he's right. I gotta just, I gotta get it better. I gotta fix this. I gotta stop saying those things that I say and I gotta try a little bit harder on my own. Let me repeat it again. No man can tame the tongue. You need to feel the impossibility that you on your best day in the best circumstances, you do not have the power to stop either life or death from coming from your mouth. And that should lead you to a place of desperation and surrender. This is God, I can't do this. God's not looking for your effort. He's looking for your surrender. He's looking for you to come and say, this is a mountain I could never climb. God, you know I've said so many words that have hurt so many people. I've done so much damage and I've tried my hardest. And God, I just bring all I am to you, my positives and my negatives, the good things, the bad things, all of it. And I lay it at your feet. But we have to stand before this and realize we are not powerful ourselves enough to tame the tongue. That we need God's help, but you know what? In the moments when we feel the impossibility, that's when God shines the most. God loves the word impossible. He loves it. He loves it. Sarah in scriptures was too old. Pharaoh, he had too great of an army. The dead sea was too deep. Jericho's walls were too tall. Goliath was too strong. The lions that Daniel was thrown to were too hungry. Paul was too angry and bitter. Then the gap between God and man was too impossible. And Jesus himself said, it's easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than a rich person to get saved. So should we just give up? And Jesus says, but with God, all things are possible. All things are possible through God and Christ who strengthens me, but we have to come to that realization. We have to feel what James gives us the intensity of. Setting on fire, the world, you're just scorching them with hell. We have to feel that, the weight of that, that you and I have really scorched people and every person in this room has caused significant damage to another person with the words that you have said. And we have to feel the weight of that, but not in a sense where we feel condemnation, but we come to a place because there is a solution and it's not primarily effort, it's surrender. And I wanna show you something real quick in Nehemiah 8. I love this story so much. I'm gonna try to read it quickly, but they're stoked because they just found the book of the law. This entire generation has not heard the Pentateuch. They have not heard the law of Moses and so they get the scrolls out and there's a party. Everyone's super excited, but then in verse nine we see what happens. And Nehemiah, who is the governor and Ezra the priest and the scribe and the Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, this day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn and do not weep. For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Verse 10, then he said, go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy to the Lord. Do not sorrow for the joy of the Lord is your strength. I love this so much. Because here's what happens. People are like, yes, we got the Bible. This is awesome. Then all of a sudden they start hearing the Bible and they're like, oh my gosh, I do that wrong. I do that, I do that. I should have been stoned for that. I should be dead for that. And they're just feeling the weight of all of that. And they're just weeping and mourning, but what's happened is the conviction that is good has kind of led to this condemnation and heaviness. And then Nehemiah does this super weird thing. You know, you would think he got up there and be like, you dirty sinners, thus saith the Lord, I told you so. Like, gotcha, you're all a bunch of dirty sinners. Like he gets up and he says, hey, I know everybody's mourning right now, but here's what I want you to do. I want you to go to chicken house and get some Nashville hots. And then I want you to go to Hardings and grab some wine. And I want you guys to go home and just party and celebrate tonight. Because the joy of the Lord is your strength. Your strength or your ability to do the law is not your strength. That's actually your condemnation and your heaviness. But the joy of the Lord is your strength, meaning when you are at the place where you feel, I've done damage, this is really hard, I can't do anything about this. That's the place where we receive the joy of the Lord that becomes our strength in a surrendered life and a surrendered heart. So what do we do? We consider the motivation, we consider the source, but what do we do now is the drama from the scripture builds, and that leads us to number three, which is let it flow. And I'm gonna resist singing that to the tune of frozen. Will I resist though? Now that I'm up here, I'm feeling like I might not resist. I'll resist. I wanna read a few of these scriptures. John 4, 13 through 14. Jesus answered and said to her, whoever drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water I shall give him will never thirst. But the water I shall give him will become a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. John 7, 49, on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, if anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me as the scriptures have said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Revelation 22 verse one, then he showed me a pure river of water, of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the tree of life which bore 12 fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Last one is Ezekiel 47 verse seven. When I returned there along the banks of the river, there were many trees, one on one side and the other. Then he said to me, the water flows toward the eastern region, it goes down into the valley and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed and it shall be that every living thing that moves wherever the rivers go will live. But then in verse 11 it says, but its swamps and marshes will not be healed, they will be given over to salt. Do you hear the imagery that James uses in James three littered throughout the words of Jesus, throughout the prophecy of Ezekiel, through the vision that John saw in Revelation 22 of a river of life, of water that brings healing wherever it flows. But then he shows this picture of water that has been stopped up and has stopped moving. And then he says what that water is just salt, the same word that James uses. And last chapter in James two, we learn that faith without works is dead. And in James three we learn words without flow become dead. You know where a river starts, the name of that, it's called the head waters. Do you know where the beginning of words start, they start with a thought. And we love having our own thoughts of course and we do have our own, but scriptures talk about that the enemy puts thoughts in her head and that our father puts thoughts in her head. And then that comes out from our head and then it eventually comes out of our mouth. Do you know what the part of the river is when the river meets the ocean or a lake? Anybody? It's called the mouth of the river. The mouth of the river. And this imagery of a raging river is one that Jesus spoke that I've said it before but I just want to zero in and out again. If you drink of me outflow rivers of living water in like a drink out like a river and what's happening with that river everywhere it flows to it brings life. But how are you able to stop that life from happening? Well, if you can stop up that water not only will it not bring life to others but it will actually become salt water and actually become deadly and become poisoned. Faith without works is dead, but words that we hear and that we don't release from our own mouth also becomes dead religion and James says is worthless, worthless. So what do we do? We just follow the command of Jesus. We let it flow. My wife and I rate so we bought a house in Kansas City. Terrible mistake, not that buying a house in Kansas City is bad. We bought the house six months before the subprime mortgage crisis happened. So we knew what we were doing and we got in the house and another mistake we made is we didn't shower in the house before we closed on the house. I recommend just doing that. It's probably not legal. You can probably just break into the house and do that. But here's the reason we got in. We're so excited. We turn on the shower, just like drops coming out. And I'm like so optimistic. I'm like, no worries. I'll go to the store. I'll get a new shower head, got a new shower head, put it on, same thing. I'm like, that's probably the pipe. I'll just put a new pipe in there. It's probably something clogged, nothing clogged. Call a plumber, he comes out. He's like, nope, you just have terrible water pressure. And it was horrible. I mean, every time you went into the shower, you're like, all right, nobody touch a sink. Nobody start any dishes. Nobody breathe in too much moisture out of the air because I need everything I can get to try to just get a little wet here. It was really bad. It was really horrible. We hated it. And one day I had to turn off the main water line for something. This is about five years into owning this house. And so I have like my massive pliers and I'm like cranking that thing back to turn it on. And as I'm going, it's kind of like rusty. And so I'm like kind of getting to the end. I'm like, I'm trying to hit it back to the same position. And it won't go. And I'm just kind of like mad because I'm like kicking it or something. And all of a sudden like, it turns like an entire half turn. And I was like, I like turn it again. Another whole turn. I'm like, I like run to the sink. I like turn it on. And it just turned into like George Bailey. It's a wonderful life. I was like, it was like, you know, like run to the shower, turn it on. I'm like, yeah, you wonderful building and loan. Like everyone's like, what is he screaming about? We just, all of a sudden just beautiful, just full strength water just poured out. We're just like dancing in the water. We invited our neighbors over. We had a sprinkler party where everyone's dancing in the water or just celebrating. We got water again. And it was, we just kept saying the same thing. I can't believe we could have been living like this the entire time. We just didn't turn the faucet on. It was, it was just, and we were like happy about it. But now even thinking back, I actually feel the same like disappointment and anger again in my heart. And it really just represents, I mean, so many of us Christians, we have a river of living water on the inside. And we just like, gink. We might say praise the Lord once in church, gink. We might say something nice every little then, gink. We have rivers of living water. And here's the thing, if I walk up to you and say, man, what did Jesus do for you this week? What comes out of you? Because here's the thing. I know if I pulled every single one of you aside tonight and I said, how do you feel about Governor Wittner? Do you think I would get a drip or do you think I would get a fire hydrant? If I pulled you aside and said, could you sir, could I bother you for an opinion on a mask? How do you feel about wearing a mask? Do you think I would get a drip or do you think I would get a fire hydrant? And yet when we get in church and we start giving thanks and praise to God or even thanks and praise to one another, drip, drip, drip. Psalm 22 says, God is enthroned on our praises. If God is enthroned on our praises, who's enthroned on your complaining? If your praise invites the king of glory to come in, who's invited in through your complaining? And speaking death. The command in scripture to praise the Lord is not a command to repeat the phrase, praise the Lord back. It'd be like if you came to my house and you knocked on the door. I was on the other side. I was like, hey bro, come on in. Open the door. And you're like, open the door. I'm like, my dude, just open the door. Open the door. Yo, yo, I'm washing dishes. I can't get to the door. Can you just open the door? Open the door. And yet that's how we look at the phrase, praise the Lord. The command to praise the Lord was not to repeat the phrase, praise the Lord. It was to get detailed and specific to let thanksgiving and gratitude pour out of your heart until it gets that faucet that's just stuck. And it turns and all of a sudden what went in like a drink comes out like a raging river just pouring out life. So you know that these words for praise in the scriptures, we have one word, praise. I'm just gonna read a few of these. But in scripture, that word praise, there's seven Hebrew words. The first is halal, which is to act clamorously foolish. The command to praise, there's actually to act like a fool, to be so loud and to boast and to rave. So much so that you go mad. To yadah, which is to extend or to literally cast or throw your words or your hands. Toadah, which is to thank God for things not yet received as well as things at hand. Shabbak, which is to shout, to command and triumph. Barak, which is to kneel and bless. Zamar, which is to praise the Lord on instruments. Tahila, to sing, not tequila. You sinners, you're in church. Tahila, to sing your own song of praise, to respond with your voice or a hymn. Let me read those words in the context of Psalm 100. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Enter his gates with toadah and into his courts with tahila. Be yadah unto him and Barak his name. And we think that means just walking in church and just letting somebody else sing or praise or even with our own kids or even with our spouses. Well, we'll just let somebody else do the encouragement and the talking. And there is kind of that attitude that we've got unfortunately with the stage and some of the things where there's kind of this feel that worship and praise is kind of this performance. And there's no Hebrew word for praise that is like thou shalt stand with thine hand in thine pocket and stare at thine worship team. Do not lift up thine voice because thou sounds like a dying goat when thou sings. So be quiet and let the worship team do the praising. No, the Hebrew words that command to praise the Lord was a specific action. Faith without an action is dead and our words without an action of lifting up our voice or speaking out loud is dead and it can actually poison our hearts rather than offering up. And we sung this song this weekend from this house. And this is something that we are really passionate about as radiant worship. You probably noticed, but you see a lot of weekends you might see, you know, Jonathan Moose up there or my name or my wife's name or Ryan Kondo or the struggling worship leader named Corey Asbury who helped me write reckless love to give him a little shout out. You might see those names up there on the screen and listen, we're not singing our songs because we want notoriety. That song tonight from this house be lifted up came out of this prayer meeting where we were singing God from the heart of this house to the ends of the earth let your name be praised and let that flow from our house. And what was great about this song is we wrote this and like two weeks later COVID started happening and we were like, wow, we're really singing from our house and Jojo Rittering had the joke. He's like, we could sing from this couch. Like from this couch be lifted up. These people are just like sitting eating chips. And this language of, look, creation's been singing, but it's our turn now. It's not like for me, there's something in me that's like, God, I don't wanna just offer the songs that other people are singing. God, I don't wanna be so bored with who you are that I'm like, yeah, I can go to the CCLI top 100 and just, you know, I'll pull out this timeline tune. That'll work, you know. No, I want us as a church and as a people and as a worship team that our hearts are so exploding with language for who God is and his majesty and his beauty and his worth that we just can't stop writing songs about it from this house. I believe that songs will be written from this house that will go and have already gone, but more so that will go to the ends of the earth and we'll give language to the people of God not to just love our language, but to unleash their song and their language. God, do it in this house. But I hope for you, there's something in your heart that's like, man, it's not enough just for the worship team. You know, if you went out for your anniversary and you gave your wife her card and she's all excited and she opens it up and she opens it up and all it says is whatever was printed on the card. You know, and it's, you know, it's poetic and it's beautiful, but you didn't write it. She might be like, oh, that's a really sweet card. What do you think? What do you love about me? Your words probably aren't as elegant as whatever the Hallmark guy or girl is that just watches Hallmark movies all days and writes cards, I guess. I don't know how that works, but you know what? Your wife wants to hear your voice. Can I say tonight, your father wants to hear your voice. He doesn't want me bringing all the praise. He doesn't want the worship team bringing all the praise. He wants to bring your voice. And James says, there's so much power in your voice. We have to see the positive of what he said. He said, look, you're a ship. You are heading toward a horizon with cargo on your ship and you are sailing gloriously and you're the horse bit language is beautiful too. You are a horse. You have power and majesty and beauty. If you would give the reins over to the Holy Spirit and let him bridle your mouth, there's so much power in what you can do in release. But it has to start. You have to turn the faucet on. Out of his mouth will flow rivers of living water. I wanna invite you to stand both here and in Portage and those watching online, I wanna encourage you to stand as well. I'm gonna make you do something that might feel awkward for you. So fair warning. But I would be so remiss if to preach this message and we left tonight being like, wow, that's cool. Those are some cool thoughts. And we didn't take time to let this river of life. That river of life that's described in Ezekiel 47 in Revelation 22, it's so beautiful. It's so stunning. The language is amazing. That river lives inside of you and it's waiting to come out. Kalamazoo needs that river. We need words that don't sound like everyone else's. We can't just go on to Facebook and Twitter and spout off whatever political opinions we have and then think we can call up people and still have prophetic influence to speak words of life. We have to submit our words to the Holy Spirit. And when we stand in front of people, is our motivation to be heard or seen or is it God? I have a river of living water on the inside of me. And if you would give me some words, I will open my mouth and let that river shoot forth and bring healing in life. So I asked the worship team to come up and imported. They're gonna have their own worship team. Pastor Richard is gonna lead over there. And if you're online, continue. This is gonna be our ministry moment. We're gonna let the musicians play and sing and we are going to let the river flow. If you've never sung in church, tonight's your night. And I don't care if you have one phrase if it's I love you. I don't care if it's one word. I don't care if it's just a melody, but tonight, let's offer up our own song. Let's let the river flow because like James says in James 3, it's either saltwater or it's fresh water. It's either healing or death. And God, may we be a church that brings your life to this city and this world, and may we not contribute to the strife and anger and hatred and division and confusion that's happening around us. But let our words be gracious, seasoned with salt. Let our words come from a pure heart. Lord, let our words, let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be pleasing and acceptable in your sight. And God, may we never withhold the praise. Let's do your name. Worship team's just gonna begin singing. And we're just gonna do this for a few minutes. We're gonna lift up our own song and we're gonna fill up every home that's watching this service right now. We're gonna fill up this sanctuary with our own words and our own songs of praise and let the river flow. And you will be able to feel the atmosphere shift as the King of Kings is enthroned on our praises. Yeah, let's just begin lifting up our voices together as they play and as they sing. Let's fill this house with singing and worship. Come on, let's keep going. Every voice lifted, every voice singing praises to the Lord. Exalting his name, lifting high the name of Jesus. Come on, spring up O well. Spring up O well within my soul. Spring up O well, thankfulness arise. Gratitude arise. Break the blockage, God. Break the dams of negativity, Lord, and criticism and let the river flow of life, of praise to you, God. Let's lift our voices. Can you feel the atmosphere even in your heart change when we walk through the gate of thanksgiving into the court of praise, when we let the river flow?